Sub-section (1) gives the Act its name: the Income-tax Act, 2025. Sub-section (2) extends it to the whole of India. Sub-section (3) fixes commencement at the 1st April, 2026, but opens with the saving "Save as otherwise provided in this Act", so any provision that carries its own commencement date operates from that date instead of the general one. The text records that the Act was assented to by the President of India on 21-8-2025.
Why it is there
Every Act needs a citation name, a territorial reach and a start date, and this section supplies all three in three lines. The saving in sub-section (3) is the working part: it lets Parliament stagger the entry into force of individual provisions rather than switching the whole statute on at once.
Who it applies to
Every person to whom any provision of the Act would otherwise apply, anywhere in India
An assessee or authority arguing about which statute governs a particular tax year
The figures, and what each one turns on
Read the condition in the same row. A figure quoted without it is a wrong answer with a citation attached.
What
Figure
The condition on it
Where
General date of commencement
1st April, 2026
Applies save as otherwise provided in the Act, so a provision carrying its own commencement date is not governed by this date
Sub-section (3)
Date of Presidential assent
21-8-2025
Recorded in the note to the section; assent is not commencement
Note to section 1
Territorial extent
The whole of India
No part of India is carved out by the section
Sub-section (2)
What this means in practice
Assent and commencement are different dates and the gap between them is over seven months: the Act was assented to on 21 August 2025 but nothing in it operates before 1 April 2026 unless the Act itself says otherwise. That saving matters because several provisions were substituted or inserted by Act No. 4 of 2026 with effect from 1 April 2026, so the version of a section to apply is the one in force for the year in dispute, not the one printed at assent.
An example
Illustrative only, and invented for this page. The figures are chosen to show the rule biting, not taken from any real matter.
An individual is served a notice in February 2026 about an earlier year and is told a provision of the Income-tax Act, 2025 applies to it. Section 1(3) is the first answer: the Act had not come into force on that date, since its general commencement is 1 April 2026. The only way a provision of this Act could bite earlier is if the Act itself otherwise provides, and the reader must point to that provision rather than assume it.
Where you meet this section
You rarely see this section quoted in a notice. It surfaces in the first paragraph of an appeal or a written submission, whenever the point in issue is whether the Income-tax Act, 2025 or the earlier law governs the year, or whether an amended version of a section was in force on the relevant date.
The words themselves
This Act may be called the Income-tax Act, 2025.
Section 1(1), Income-tax Act, 2025.
Save as otherwise provided in this Act, it shall come into force on the 1st April, 2026.
Section 1(3), Income-tax Act, 2025.
What people get wrong
Treating the assent date as the commencement date. The note records assent on 21-8-2025; sub-section (3) sets commencement at 1 April 2026.
Reading 1 April 2026 as a uniform date for every provision. Sub-section (3) is expressly subject to "Save as otherwise provided in this Act", so a provision with its own date governs itself.
Assuming the Act's extent is qualified for some States or territories. Sub-section (2) extends it to the whole of India without exception.
What this replaced
The correspondence is the Income Tax Department’s own, from its comparison utility for the 1961 and 2025 Acts. A renumbering is the easy half; whether the words changed is the half that decides cases.
A circular binds the department, not you and not a court. Every one below was written under the 1961 Act; it reaches this section because the department’s own concordance carries the provision it names to this one.
Circular No. 22/2022 — Condonation of delay under section 119 2 b of the income tax act 1961 in filing of form no.10a 2022-11-01
Circular 5/2014, dated 11-2-2014 — Section 14A of the Income-tax Act, 1961, read with rule 8d of the Income-tax Rules, 1962 - Expenditure incurred in relation to inc 2014-02-11
Circular No. 522 — 384. Monetary ceilings prescribed in section 40A(3)/269SS/269T - Raised to Rs. 10,000, Rs. 20,000 and Rs. 20,000, respectively, by 1988-08-18
Circular No. 504 — 955. Effect of insertion of sub-sections (2), (2A) and (2B) in section 192 by the Finance Act, 1987 - Relevant rules amended to en 1988-02-08
Circular No. 484 — Section 80HH l Newly Established Industrial Undertakings in Backward Areas 1987-05-01
Circular No. 418 — 501. Subscriptions to National Savings Certificates (VI Issue/VII Issue) - Clarifications on certain issues regarding their eligib 1985-05-02
Circular No. 405 — 501. Subscriptions to National Savings Certificates (VI Issue/VII Issue) - Clarifications on certain issues regarding their eligib 1985-01-15
Circular No. 351 — Section 197A l No Deduction of TAX at Source to BE Made in Certain Cases 1982-11-26
Circular No. 329 — Section 80J l Profits and Gains from Newlyestablished Undertakings 1982-02-22
Circular No. 239 — 626. Relief in the case of amounts repaid under Additional Emoluments (Compulsory Deposit) Act - Procedure laid down for working o 1978-05-16
Circular No. 119 — 857. Payment of tax on self-assessment/regular assessment, in cases where capital gains have not been invested, for the purposes 1973-09-26
Circular No. 94 — 1756. Instructions regarding application for certificate for deduction of tax at lower rates and obligations/liabilities of person 1972-11-15
Circular No. 95 — 1112. Rules and forms prescribed for the purposes of deduction of tax at source from payments to contractors and sub-contractors u 1972-11-15
Circular No. 84 — Requirements to be satisfied by applicants for being eligible for concession envisaged under the section 1972-05-23
Circular No. 31 — Section 80RR l Professional Income from Foreign Sources in Certain Cases 1969-10-25
Circular No. 8 — Requirements to be satisfied by applicants for being eligible for concession envisaged under the section 1969-03-24
A notification is made under a power the Act gives and, within that power, is law. These too were made under the 1961 Act and are placed here by the department’s concordance.
G.S.R. 868(E) — National Savings Certificates-IX Issued specified as class of Savings Certificates to which Government Savings Certificates Act, 1 2011-12-07
What this page does not tell you. It does not reproduce the section. Everything above was written from the section’s own text as the Income Tax Department publishes it — the text is here, and nothing here is advice on your facts. Where a figure matters, read the sub-section it comes from.
